Mega Man Zero: Reversal of Fortune
by Alex75
Summary: In the distant future, one Reploid stands alone against an oppressive government.(MMZ novelization) (Chapter 3 up)
1. Genesis

**Mega Man Zero: Reversal of Fortune**

A novelization by  
Alex

**_Chapter 1: Genesis_**

Compared to its 20th century appearance, the island-nation of Japan in the year 22XX was but a ghost of its former self. With most of the population having died after nearly a century of all-out war, the fortress-city of Neo-Arcadia on the former site of Tokyo was the only sign that human life still existed. To the north, a vast desert was formed by terrain too blasted for even the weeds to grow. To the south, however, trees and shrubbery had overrun much of the rubble, forming a sort of giant forest of crumbling buildings and gigantic elms. To the casual observer, it might have seemed pretty.  
  
To Ciel, however, it seemed more like a deathtrap.  
  
"Why did they have to choose today of all days to step up their patrols?" she shouted to the wind, hurling herself behind a crumbling wall shortly before a hail of plasma bursts shredded the ground where she stood moments previously.  
  
It had seemed like such a simple plan at first. After much research, Ciel had finally discovered the weapon she believed that the Resistance needed to fend off the forces of Neo-Arcadia. All they needed to do was retrieve it. The forests south of the city had long helped to shelter Resistance movements from surveillance, so it had seemed like a rather straightforward job.  
  
That was before the monsters had appeared. The Pantheons, humanoid robots with a single cyclopean eye and an arm-mounted plasma gun, were something they had all gotten used to; if that were all, Ciel was confident they would have made it. The monsters were different, though. Huge slabs of armor plating, hovering silently a foot off the ground...they had tried to run away, but for all their size, the machines easily caught up to them and began to attack with some sort of chest-mounted laser. Ciel was afraid that the image of her fellow Resistance members being diced into bloody pieces by the high-powered beam would haunt her forever.  
  
They had set out with twelve people, twelve nervous recruits who hadn't so much as handled a gun before. Now they were all dead. It almost made Ciel want to cry, but she resisted; her first priority was survival. There was a brief lull in the shooting, and then a young man in Resistance fatigues leapt over to her side of the wall, firing as he went. Then, another, wearing a full helmet and goggles instead of the first's rather simple beret. She couldn't resist a smile. "You made it, Milan," she said with a strained bit of laughter. Milan returned it. "We can't stay here, Ms. Ciel," he said, gesturing to the tunnel into the earth that lay a few dozen feet behind them. "If the target's down there, I say we make a break for it...if we go back, they'll just cut us down." Ciel nodded; she could already hear the sound of mechanical footsteps growing near. Evidently, the Pantheons had moved in for the kill after their support had done it's job. Milan was up in a flash, tossing a grenade over the wall before sprinting over towards the tunnel. Ciel paused only long enough to watch; the metal canister came to a clattering halt at the foot of a Pantheon, which looked down to investigate the noise...it never even had a chance to leap for cover, as the grenade tore it and it's nearest companions into shreds. The other Resistance member fired a few quick bursts to keep the remainder at bay as they dashed into the tunnels.

----------------------------  
  
Milan grunted with exertion, servos whining as he muscled the heavy door shut behind them. They had fled deep into the tunnels, which thankfully branched off in countless different directions. While Ciel was confident that the many different paths would confuse their pursuers, Milan insisted on sealing the heavy emergency bulkheads to keep them at bay. Ciel wasn't even sure where they were anymore, either. She was just about to sit down and try and check her map when a tiny voice and a brief stirring came from her pocket.  
  
"Ciel, are we there yet?"  
  
Ciel just shook her head, while Milan and the soldier tried their best to ignore the voice. A tiny figure appeared from within Ciel's pocket, floating up on gossamer wings until it was about level with Ciel's face. Though only an inch high, Ciel could clearly see the consternation on the Cyber Elf's face. It almost would have seemed cute, if the situation weren't so dire. "Passy, we don't have any time to waste," Ciel scolded, "Can you feel what we came here for?" The Cyber Elf almost seemed hurt for a moment, then furrowed her tiny eyebrows in concentration. "...this way!" she shouted, turning and darting off into the tunnels. Ciel and the others quickly followed, trying to ignore the deep, rythmic pounding off in the distance. Apparently the Pantheons were closer than they thought, and Ciel was silently thankful for Milan's diligence.   
  
After what seemed like hours of wandering, they finally found something. Or at least, that's what Passy seemed to indicate, as they came to a dead end. She turned around, folding her arms over her chest as she hovered up in front of the strange crystalline wall before them. "Well?" Ciel shook her head, pausing for a moment to catch her breath. They had been running for quite a while, after all. "Is....this a...dead end?" she managed to gasp out; being Reploids, of course, Milan and the soldier were perfectly fine. Passy shook her head. "No, there's definitely something on the other side of this wall. This is it." While Ciel was skeptical, and walked over to the wall to tap at it, the soldier apparently accepted this. He reached into his satchel and retrieved a hand grenade. "Stay back, Ms. Ciel." he warned, the girl darting behind a large chunk of fallen ceiling for cover as he tossed the grenade. The strange crystalline wall shattered from the force of the explosion, raining shards of glass and chunks of circuitry on the gathered explorers.   
  
The room beyond was massive, easily the size of a football field, and totally covered in brackish water and chunks of debris. The only light came from a hole in the roof, nearly a hundred feet in the air, shining down upon a pillar in the center of the area. For a moment, all four could do nothing but gasp; but they were broken from their reverie by the sound of an explosion behind them. "They're here!" the soldier shouted, drawing his gun and glancing over his shoulder. "You three go on ahead, I'll take care of them." Ciel was almost going to object, before Milan put a hand on her shoulder and began to gently steer her away. She relented, and they stepped down into the room with a loud splash. The water was at least a foot deep, and an ugly greenish-brown in color; probably contaminated with all sorts of nasty chemicals, Ciel reflected idly. Then, as they approached the pillar in the center of the room, she gasped.  
  
"Th...is that....?" Milan began, finding his tongue before she could. Inside the pillar, which was apparently an ancient stasis tube, kneeling as if praying, was the body of a red Reploid with long blonde hair. Ciel and Milan had both heard the legend of Zero, of the legendary crimson Reploid who once fought alongside X. This /had/ to be him. "Is...that has to be him. It's Zero!" Ciel shouted, clasping her hands in front of her. A brief hint of joy crept into her tone, as the possibility of the nightmare ending finally seemed to be at hand. Milan, similarly excited, walked forward to try and enter the shattered tube; he yelped in surprise as he was repulsed, a glittering forcefield becoming visible as he touched it. "That was a dumb thing to do," Passy scolded, sticking her tongue out at Milan. He did his best to try and ignore her, though, as he began to search for a control panel of some kind. "There has to be some way to get in there...."  
  
Everyone froze at the sound of gunfire. Ciel whipped around, just in time to see the young soldier guarding the door scream and fall down with multiple holes blown through his body. He was dead before he even hit the ground. "Dead end! We have to get out of here Ciel!" Milan shouted, grabbing Ciel by the shoulder and roughly dragging her towards cover. Her eyes lingered on the steaming corpse of the young reploid whose name she hadn't even learned. "But..." Milan growled, bodily tossing her behind the shattered remains of a table. "No buts!" He was just about to follow, when shots rang out. For a moment, Ciel imagined that time seemed to stand still; she could see Milan's eyes widen, and with a scientist's eye for detail, she could see the conductive fluid that so resembled blood leaking from a gaping wound in his chest...a brief part of her wondered why reploids were designed so. Was it some sort of macabre joke? Then she snapped back to reality, as Milan's body fell into the water next to her with a loud 'splash'. Ciel screamed. The sound of boots on metal, and then on water, rang out through the room; the Pantheons were coming. Ciel curled into a ball; it was all over now. They'd kill her here, and then...and then....  
  
"Ciel." Passy said, sternly, trying to rouse Ciel from her daze. While the Cyber Elf was programmed to act in a childish fashion, she was observant enough to notice the signs of shock setting in. If Ciel lost her head now, then everything was lost. The woman said nothing. "CIEL!!!" Passy shouted, at the top of her miniature lungs. That got her attention. Ciel's eyes lost the glazed, distant look of the previous moment, as she snapped back to reality. "...Passy?" she asked, voice meek....Passy shook her head in irritation. "Use my power! It's your only chance!" Ciel seemed to deflate a little, hanging her head as the sound of the Pantheons edged closer and closer. "But...Passy....if I do that...." "Forget about me!" the Cyber-Elf began, "Everyone's waiting for you, Ciel. If you die, what will happen to all of them?" Ciel seemed to consider this. "....okay, Passy. Thank you." Passy smiled. It was a thin, forced smile, but a smile nonetheless. "No, thank you, Ciel. I would have never had this life, were it not for you. Good....good-bye..." And with that, she turned and flew off towards the stasis tube at maximum speed. Ciel's cry of grief and anguish was lost on Passy's ears, her body already dissolving into it's constituent elements and racing towards the occupant of the tube.


	2. Exodus

**_Chapter 2: Exodus_**

_----------------------_

_CMOS - OK  
BIOS - OK  
Combat Frame - OK  
PROM - ERROR  
Device Driver - ERROR  
  
Initializing main program...  
  
ERROR 2219: FUNCTION NOT SUPPORTED 0xE22345  
  
(C)ontinue, (R)etry, (Q)uit?  
  
cmd -c  
  
reading "Z.O.S."  
reading "MV.cfg"....not found  
  
Operations at 80% capacity. System at 100% capacity. The date is July 4, 22XX. Welcome._

-----------------------------  
  
The reploid awoke with a start. At least, he assumed he was a reploid, as a small text scroll in the corner of his field of vision gave off a litany of information about the things he was seeing. He knew, at least, that humans didn't possess such a feature. A quick scan of the area revealed that he stood in a room exactly 56 feet by 42 feet, confirmed by laser-rangefinding, and the floor was covered in 13 inches of greenish fluid, which a quick molecular scan confirmed to be approximately 40% water, 60% hydraulic fluid, and 10% decomposed plant and animal matter by volume.   
  
There were four lifesigns in the room; before him stood a trio of humanoid machines in blue armor, with a single red eye in the center of their heads and a plasma submachinegun attached to their right arms. His sensors visualized a faint wavering line extending from their heads off into the distance; he instantly knew that this was data from his radio-emission detectors, being converted to a visual stimulus for easier processing. Perhaps they were radioing for further instructions, upon his 'arrival'. Behind him was the fourth lifesign, a young girl cowering behind a rock; he craned his head to get a better look at her. Hardly more than 5 feet tall, with large blue eyes widened in fear, and long blonde hair; she was wearing a pink dress and jacket, though it and her hair had become fouled with muck and grime from the swampy surroundings.  
  
This vast quantity of data was processed in less than half a second. The girl spoke first, breaking the momentary trance that had fallen over the room. "Zero...are you...?" The robots seemed to have gotten their reply at that precise moment, as in unison they raised their arm-guns and readied them with an ominous metallic clack. Two were aimed at him, and the third was drawing a bead on the girl behind him.  
  
They never even got a chance to fire, as the reploid leapt forward with surprising speed. His hand shot through the nearest machine as if it wasn't even there, it's armor tearing like paper from the sheer force of the blow. Retracting his hand, the reploid allowed it's pole-axed corpse to drop from his grasp. The other two backed away, perhaps from fear, perhaps attempting to line up for a better shot. He didn't care. Before the first body had even hit the ground he was in motion again, lashing out with both hands as he passed. The robots recoiled, then slid to the ground in two neat pieces; the cut was so clean it looked as if it were made by a blade rather than a hand. That only left the girl.  
  
The reploid hadn't acted to protect her, really. The enemy just happened to have aimed at her as well as himself, and self-preservation took over from there. But, now that the enemy had been cleared, he was at a loss as to what to do with her. He spotted the corpse at her feet, however, and saw that it was armed with a pistol of some sort. Without a word he drew closer to relieve the dead body of it's burden, and tried his best to ignore her flinching as he approached. She almost looked like she was about to cry as he reached down to grab the pistol still clutched firmly in the dead reploid's hand; unlike a human, 'rigor mortis' set in almost instantly as his body stopped receiving instructions and stuck in the position it last occupied. A firm yank, and the weapon came free with a loud 'crack!' as the hand clutching it shattered under the assault. The girl looked away, suddenly turning a rather sickly shade of green.  
  
"Are you allright?" the reploid asked, after a moment. He didn't quite know why he said it; maybe something about her plight spoke to a buried memory that he couldn't quite recall. She took a moment to collect herself, but only a moment. He was silently impressed as she spoke, with a quiet strength he hadn't expected from her slender frame. "I'll be fine. You're...no, you have to be Zero."   
  
He said nothing for a moment, considering the name she addressed him by. For some reason, the name Zero seemed rather appropriate for him, though he couldn't quite place why. He frowned slightly, as that realization came to him...he really didn't remember anything before he was awakened. How curious. But, the name suited him, so he decided to accept it for the moment. The girl took his silence as an acknowledgement, and continued, "My name is Ciel. I'm with a group..." she swallowed hard. Zero wondered how many of this group had been slain coming here. "...we're fighting against the people that employ those things you just destroyed. Will you help me get back?" Her voice softened, as she continued: "I...don't want to die here. Not like this, with so much left to do...."  
  
Zero nodded. Again, he briefly weighed the risks and benefits; if more of these machines were waiting outside, then the possibility of their being similarly hostile was very likely. Furthermore, she had come into this place, so she knew the way out. Again, Zero took the most expedient option as he took a step towards the ruined door. "Follow me then. I hope you know the way." She nodded.   
  
With Ciel in tow, Zero approached the entrance that the blue machines had come through. He could have sworn that as he left, he heard a faint and sinister laugh...but when he looked over his shoulder, nothing was there.  
  
-----------------------------  
  
Phantom hated delivering bad news. It wasn't just the short walk from the operations center to the commander's quarters, which gave him this time to pontificate, that he dreaded. No, he decided, the worst part was his belief that Master X saw him as less than worthy for it. The dishonor of failure was a burden on his synthetic soul. While he was a Guardian, one of the four 'children' of X, and thus afforded a certain immunity from execution due to his value, it didn't help his feeling of guilt.  
  
So clouded were his thoughts that he didn't even pause to appreciate the beauty of the Path of Sephirot, the name of the hallway linking the two rooms; its grandiose name was assigned partially due to it's regal splendor, with Greco-Roman columns and artfully-designed artificial foliage springing up nearly everywhere one looked, and partly due to the fact that it was the path leading from the outside world to the domain of Master X, who was like unto a god. That thought was humbling, so as he entered the room, Phantom made sure to keep his head bowed.   
  
"Master, there's been a complication." he began, after a moment. Though he kept his head low, he could practically /feel/ his master's crimson eyes burning into his skull. "I'm aware, Phantom," was the reply, a faint undercurrent of irritation...or was it bemusement?...slipping into his tone. "Whenever you have bad news to deliver, you always adopt the same expression." Phantom's mood lifted, just slightly, as he saw his master smile just a little. A rare thing, these days. "But very well, make your report." Phantom nodded, and began to speak.  
  
"As I've already reported, the 9th Special Forces unit has engaged the Resistance after stumbling across a small cell making their way through the forests to the south. The Golem units they were field-testing at the time ensured that the rebels were put to rout, but they fled into the ruins, where the Golems were too large to effectively pursue. The Pantheons sent in managed to get this transmission back to us before they were destroyed." As he said this, Phantom activated the small holo-projector that he was carrying. An image appeared in mid-air of an impassive Zero slamming his fist through one of the cyclopean blue machines. Phantom frowned slightly as his master took in a sharp breath. Apparently this was more serious than he had first believed. "Master, I've taken the liberty of ordering the entire 9th Unit to flush out and destroy the rebels. The Golems are just able to fit into some of the larger accessways, so I ordered them as well to...." "It won't be enough," his master stated flatly, giving a faint sigh. "....sir?"  
  
----------------------------  
  
At first, things were deceptively quiet. The three one-eyed machines that Zero had already dispatched had, apparently, been the last of their squad. He took the opportunity to familiarize himself with the weapon he had retrieved; the pistol was made of a dull silvery material that his sensors tentatively identified as titanium alloy, with a rubberized black grip and heavy trigger guard. According to his databanks, it resembled a primitive projectile weapon used centuries ago, even if it did fire bolts of energy. Despite the fact that he had never seen such a weapon before, it felt oddly comfortable in Zero's hand. Like it belonged.  
  
This came in handy as he heard the sound of footsteps around the corner. Glancing over at Ciel to make sure she was allright, Zero waited until the footsteps were at their lowest ebb before leaping out and firing. The one-eyed robot on the other side didn't even get a chance to turn around before a three-round burst punctured it twice in the back and once in the head. Its companions, however, did...and began to fire at Zero, rapid-fire bursts of plasma peppering the ground and the area around him. With a yell of surprise, Zero jumped back for cover, but not before a bolt skimmed off his back and left a nasty, blackened scar.  
  
"That was a bloody stupid thing to do," Ciel observed, which got a humorless smile from Zero. "I'm still learning," he replied. The machines, naturally agitated now, rushed around the corner to finish off their prey. As they rounded the bend, however, they came face to face with Zero and his pistol. One shot tore the first machine's gun-arm off, sending it spiralling to the ground. The second burned a clean hole through the other's optic sensor and out the back of his skull. A third shot finished off the twitching, struggling remains of the armless one.  
  
As Zero turned to check on her, Ciel again looked pale and almost ill. He briefly wondered if she had seen killing this close and personal before. For some reason, he decided to make small-talk. "So, what are these things called anyway?" he asked, kicking idly at one of the corpses. "Those..." she paused for a moment, as if thinking. She began to look better already, and actually smiled at Zero as she continued: "Those are called Pantheons. They're built to resemble the leader of Neo-Arcadia. They're the standard trooper of our enemy's forces." Zero frowned slightly as he glared at the corpse. A vague hint of recognition passed through him, and for a moment he almost thought that the body looked like someone he knew. But he filed that thought away, and began to press on. Ciel followed without a word.

----------------------------  
  
A few twists and turns later, and they had passed more opposition. The Pantheons were appearing in larger formations now, and had apparently been instructed to wait for someone coming this way, as they fired almost as soon as he was spotted. There were other machines too, including a sort of robotic spider that fired sticky webs at Zero and Ciel, as well as creating nests that would spawn smaller baby spiders. Thankfully Zero began to get into the groove of destroying his enemies, and very few of them managed to land a shot on him. None even got to so much as scratch Ciel. The human was more delicate than he, so he went out of his way to defend her. The meter in the upper-left of his field of vision glowed faintly; it measured his internal operations energy, and he could see that he was only down to 80%. Acceptable, but he suspected that he could do better.  
  
"Oh! It's a dead end." Ciel's exclamation snapped Zero's attention away from his internal H.U.D. They were, indeed, at a dead end. Zero frowned and shook his head. "I thought you said you knew the way." Ciel began to pace around. "I did...I think....but..." She idly kicked at an old box that was lying on the floor. Exactly four minutes before the deep rumble that both Zero and Ciel heard, his advanced audio sensors picked up a faint creaking noise from below the floor. "What was that?" Ciel cried, looking around to see if they were under attack. Zero's eyes narrowed as he began to concentrate; a quick sweep of the area confirmed that the floor now had a leftward slope of 22 degrees. He was already in motion before the loud 'CRACK!' signalled that the floor was giving away.  
  
Ciel screamed in mortal fright, now quite convinced that she was going to die. She never even felt Zero's arms around her until they hit the ground, nearly thirty feet below. He didn't seem at all phased by the drop, and by grabbing her he had probably saved her from severe injury, if not death. She was momentarily confused as to why he would do such a thing, as was he. Neither said anything for what seemed like an eternity, until Ciel cleared her throat. Zero, picking up on the unspoken cue, kneeled down so that Ciel could stand up on her own.  
  
"Zero....thank you." she said, finally, after looking around to confirm where they were. They stood at the base of what appeared to be an elevator shaft, and the faint inscription 'TRANSPORTATION - B1' could be seen stenciled onto one of the walls. "...for everything. We seem to have fallen into an abandoned facility of some kind. I think there might be a Trans Server we could use to get back." At his confused look, she continued: "I'll explain when we get there." Zero seemed to accept this explanation, and again took point while Ciel trailed behind.

------------------------------------  
  
Again, they found themselves at a dead end. This time, however, the hallway had evidently collapsed. The rubble was still fresh, Zero noted, as the chunks of debris didn't have grime and mildew on the sides that would have been adjacent to each other. Ciel didn't appear to notice this, or at least she didn't comment on it. She began to say something, but Zero didn't hear her...he had already begun sending electronic 'feelers' out, focusing on using his long-range sensors to see what was beyond the debris wall. As a result, he sensed the low whine of a rocket motor lighting up long before the gigantic robotic hand burst through the wall. "Get back!" he shouted, but it was too late; the huge fist wrapped around Ciel, eliciting another scream from the girl, before snapping back the way it came on a cable winch.  
  
Zero leapt through the yawning hole created by the fist without a second thought. He almost regretted it, though, as he saw what lay beyond. A massive bronze-armored robot lay in a small chamber beyond the debis wall, clutching Ciel in it's large fist. Floating a mere foot off the air via advanced hover thrusters, Zero knew that it was probably faster than it's size would indicate. His first priority was Ciel, however, who was thankfully still alive. "Are you allright?!" he called out, firing wildly at the machine to keep it's attention diverted. He didn't even notice as all of his shots fizzled harmlessly against it's armor. "Zero, forget about me and run!" she shouted, struggling futilely against the monster's grasp. "There's no way you can defeat that thing with just a buster!" Zero gritted his teeth, as a hatch on the front of the machine dropped down and the lens beyond began to hum and crackle with gathering energy.  
  
It may be true, but he apparently had no other choice than to try.


	3. Leviticus

**_Chapter 3: Leviticus_**

--------------------------

Phantom cocked his head to one side. Though it appeared as if he were trying to listen for something, in truth he was receiving a direct radio transmission.  
  
"Sir, I'm getting a report from the 9th Unit. One of the Golems managed to capture Dr. Ciel, and is currently engaged in battle with the reploid believed to be Zero. Shall I put it on the monitor?"  
  
"Go ahead."  
  
X steepled his fingers in front of him as the viewscreen flickered on. "This should be very interesting...."

-----------------------------  
  
Zero was starting to run out of options. The machine's laser was chewing up vast portions of the room, and he was starting to run out of places to duck for cover. If he tried to shoot back, its armor was too thick for him to be anything more than an annoyance. The only way to damage it seemed to be when it dropped the plate covering its laser, but even that was heavily fortified. Zero had lost track of the shots he had poured into that monstrosity.  
  
"Ciel, are you allright?!" he called out from behind an upended bank of computers, his voice echoing through the room...thankfully, this prevented the machine from getting a bead on him. She had become dangerously quiet during the altercation, and he was worried about her. Her reply was weak and strained. "Zero...Zero, why are you still here? You'll die...." Zero frowned slightly, raising his pistol and shouting back moments before leaping from his cover: "That's not the point!"  
  
The Golem finally got a good lock on him as Zero dashed from cover. If the machine could grin, it would have, as the face-plate dropped and its lens began to throb with gathering energy. Zero's gun was raised; it was a showdown, but he had no hope of winning the exchange. This shot would tear the rebel to shreds for sure, it's computerized brain reasoned.   
  
Then, there was a bright flash of light. The machine reeled as if physically struck, and Zero turned towards the source. One of the computers had activated, and a flickering image of a brightly-colored 'X' was on the screen. This confused Zero, as some sort of memory deep down stirred within him. Why was it familiar to him....?  
  
Then the computer 'spoke', the voice thin and broken. The speakers had been corroded from centuries of neglect. "ZERO....USE....THIS...." And suddenly, a small metal object went sailing into the air. It looked like a metal tube, and as Zero watched, a blade of shimmering green energy extended from one end. It landed blade first in the ground, and began to hum ominously. Again, Zero was struck with a sense of deja vu. He said nothing, shaking his head as if to try and clear the cobwebs in his mind. "DON'T....YOU HAVE....SAVE HER....I...." Then, as soon as it came, the computer shut down again. Leaving Zero, the Golem, and Ciel. The machine seemed to snap out of its daze, and began to charge towards Zero at full speed.  
  
However, Zero knew an opportunity when he saw one. He sprang towards the beam sword embedded in the ground, ripping it free in a tremendous arc as the Golem approached. Before he'd even really known what he was doing, the machine's arm was ripped free at the shoulder by the sheer force of his blade. The arm holding Ciel clattered to the ground, and she scrambled out of its now-limp grasp. The machine recoiled, trying in vain to compensate for the injury; streaks of lightning ebbed and flowed from the gash where its arm once lay. Zero grinned in a feral fashion, leaping into the air with his sword held high overhead. "YOU'RE FINISHED!"   
  
Blade met armor in a dazzling flash of light and electricity. For a moment, time seemed to stand still. Zero's saber was buried to the hilt in the Golem's "chest", the armor running like water around the high-energy blade. Then, the Golem collapsed, its body twitching reflexively before finally lying still. Zero stared in wonder at the blade he held in his hand, looking it over. Finding the switch, he turned it off, and it fizzled away. It felt natural in his hands. Again, the feeling confused and bewildered him.  
  
"That was amazing, Zero!" Ciel called out, walking over to place a hand on his shoulder. He suddenly didn't look at all well. Then, he collapsed to one knee. "Ugh....." Ciel frowned slightly, and kneeled next to him. "You should take it easy and rest for a moment. You probably still have hibernation sickness. I'm sorry for putting you through all this, Zero." He smiled thinly. "No...it's allright."  
  
--------------------  
  
Phantom just stared at the viewscreen. As the Golem's signal cut out, he began to hear a strange, ominous creaking noise.  
  
When he turned around, he saw X still seated in his command chair, but gripping the arms so tightly that cracks began to appear in the wooden surface. His left eye twitched spasmodically. It was a very disturbing sight for the Guardian.  
  
"Sir...? Sir, are you allright? Should I call a medic?"

---------------------------  
  
"Ciel....I want to ask you something."  
  
She paused. After the Golem was downed, they had found a corridor leading off behind it. Ciel thought that the thing she was looking for was that way, so Zero had acquiesced. "What is it?"  
  
Zero frowned slightly, as if considering. "What if....what if I'm not Zero? What if I'm just some reploid with a sword and a gun?" She smiled. It was a warm, friendly smile...not one of the forced or grim ones she had given him before. He decided at that moment that he liked her smile. "Zero....you saved me from that monster. That's all the proof that I need." He fell silent at that, having no clue how to respond. He looked faintly embarrassed.  
  
Eventually, however, they came to the room Ciel was searching for. "This should be it. This appears to be an old Trans Server terminal. We can tap into it from here to get back home. Have you used one of these before?" Zero shook his head. Ciel frowned slightly. "That's right....I'm sorry."  
  
Zero said nothing, then, instead looking around the room. There was a small circular pad in the very center, and a computer terminal nearby. Without quite knowing why, he walked over to stand on the pad. "Okay, that's good. Give me a second to enter the co-ordinates...." She tapped at the keypad. "And we're good." Ciel then joined him on the pad. "We should be going in 3...2...1...."  
  
Then Zero's world seemed to fade into a brilliant flash of white light.


End file.
